Part 243

NATCHEZ, June 4, 1797.

SIR: As it is probable that this will reach you before my despatches of the 27th of last month, by way of New Orleans, I have enclosed duplicates.

About seven days ago, twenty-five Spanish soldiers arrived at this place, where they continued one night, and then proceeded up to the Walnut Hills. On the 28th of May, I received a letter from Governor Gayoso, No. 1, to which I replied on the 31st, No. 2. From Governor Gayoso’s letter, it appears that the Baron de Carondelet is not well satisfied with his conduct; they are at this time not on good terms, and the breach has been widened by the artful management of a certain Mr. Power, now at this place, who was last season intriguing in the State of Kentucky for the Spanish Government; he is particularly patronized by the Baron. The transactions which the Baron alludes to, I suspect, are the arrangements I made with Governor Gayoso, by which the troops of the United States were brought into this district with his consent and apparent approbation. The difficulty of getting them away is now obvious both to himself and the Baron, and as it was done without consulting the latter, he feels an inclination to condemn the conduct of the former.

It is now reported by the Spaniards that a Minister Plenipotentiary has been sent by the Court of Madrid to the United States to inform our Executive that the country and posts now held by His Catholic Majesty on the east side of the Mississippi, above the thirty-first degree of North latitude, are not to be given up until a general peace takes place in Europe, and that, from the uniform pacific disposition of the United States there can be no doubt of his success. This report is credited but by few.

The citizens of the United States, who are trading on the Mississippi, are frequently treated with great insolence at the Spanish posts, and their property taken for the use of His Catholic Majesty, when wanted, and always at a reduced price. About three weeks ago, a cargo of flour, consisting of between three and four hundred barrels, was taken at the Walnut Hills from a Mr. McCluny, of Washington County, in the State of Pennsylvania, against his will, to be paid for in New Orleans at such price as the officers of Government see proper to give, which is generally three dollars per barrel less than the current price in market. A few days ago Mr. Francis Baily, a citizen of the United States, who had lately come on here with some goods, had a tender of a commissary’s certificate payable at the treasury in New Orleans, which species of paper was passing at a discount of twelve per cent.; Mr. Baily declined taking the certificate as payment for the debt, and appealed to Governor Gayoso for redress, who immediately decreed that the tender was legal. These cases are not singular; they are particularized because both the gentlemen mentioned will be in Philadelphia in the course of a few weeks, and I expect will make a point of substantiating the facts--both cases being a violation of the late treaty between His Catholic Majesty and the United States.

From the jealous and suspicious disposition of the Spaniards, I do not think it possible that any treaty or compact can be lasting between that nation and our Western people, while the former have any possessions on the east side of the Mississippi.

Dr. Watrous is now here. He was on his way from Fort Hamilton, on furlough, to the State of Connecticut, but Captain Pope and myself prevailed upon him to stay with us, until we have some intelligence respecting our continuance in this country.

I am, sir, with great esteem and respect, your friend and humble servant,

ANDREW ELLICOTT.

Hon. SECRETARY OF STATE.

P. S.--At the moment I was folding this, the enclosed proclamation, No. 3, by the Baron de Carondelet, was put into my hands. The various and contradictory reasons assigned by the Spanish officers for their delay in carrying the late treaty into effect, are too obvious to need a comment.

A. E.

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NATCHEZ, June 5, 1797.

SIR: I have this moment received private information that Mr. Power, who I have mentioned to you in my communication of yesterday, is, by order of the Baron de Carondelet, to proceed immediately through the wilderness, to the State of Kentucky. There is every reason to believe that his business is to forward the views of Spain, by detaching the citizens of Kentucky from the Union. It has been hinted to me that Mr. Power will, in the first instance, pay a visit to General Wilkinson, who, we are informed, is now in Cincinnati.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

ANDREW ELLICOTT.

Hon. SECRETARY OF STATE.

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DARLING’S CREEK, November 8, 1798.

SIR: On the 10th of last month, having opened the boundary between the United States and His Catholic Majesty, from the Mississippi River to the thin pine country, we ceased carrying the line on in that accurate scientific manner in which it was begun, and from the end of the line, designated in the report which accompanies this, the work will generally be done with a common surveying compass, and corrected at the different navigable water-courses which it may happen to cross.

The line mentioned in the report is opened sixty feet wide, and passes through a country impenetrable to any but Americans. The labor has been equal to what would in our country have opened at least one hundred miles. The business, it is evident, will not go on with that rapidity we could wish; nothing, however, will be wanting on our part, and I think it will be completed the ensuing season. Governor Gayoso has evidently been brought into a co-operation very reluctantly, and certainly has no desire of having it pushed. Mr. Power, a gentleman well known for his intrigues in Kentucky and other parts of the United States, is the surveyor on the part of the Crown of Spain; he has attended but one week on the line, and I do not believe that he will attend another, during the execution of the work. He has, however, employed a deputy, who is Mr. Daniel Burnet, the same person who carried Mr. Hutchins’s papers to Congress last winter; he has yet behaved very well. The others employed, Major Minor excepted, are of little consequence, except to disorganize and talk politics. The acting commissary is a Mr. Gensack; he was taken by the British at the Cape, and carried to Jamaica, from whence he made his escape to the United States, where he found safety, but, in the true character of his nation, he equally hates both Americans and British: he is sullen, reserved, and intriguing. There are no Spaniards concerned in the business, and but a few of the common soldiers. Major Minor and Mr. Burnet are Americans; the others, including the laborers, are generally French, or descended from French ancestors, or Roman Catholic Irish. When I look over this strange heterogeneous collection, I cannot help asking this question: “Can the Spaniards really be serious in carrying the treaty into effect?” If they are, it is very extraordinary that there is not one of that nation employed above the rank of a common soldier.

I have always been of opinion that it was a happy circumstance for both countries that Major Minor was appointed Commissioner on behalf of the Crown of Spain; his prudence and sound judgment will, in all probability, enable us to carry the work through, which I am confident would not have been the case, had Mr. Power been appointed to that trust, as was proposed by Governor Gayoso, and to which I pointedly objected, as did Mr. Dunbar also.

If our surveyor had been a man of prudence and talents, our difficulties would have been much less; but his want of information, extreme pride and ungovernable temper, constantly furnish the opposite party with weapons. He has insinuated that the work is erroneous, and that Major Minor and myself have combined to injure both Governments, and wantonly lavish away public money. He himself has been the only idle person on the side of the United States; his whole attendance on the line as surveyor would not exceed one week. His insinuations, I am confident, would have but little weight with the people of the United States, but the case is very different with the Spaniards, naturally jealous, and uninformed in science, particularly so far as it relates to astronomical operations.

On Friday, the 12th of last month, General Wilkinson arrived at our camp, and continued with us until Sunday, the 14th. We had much conversation on the state and situation of the country; his ideas respecting both appeared very correct so far as I was able to determine. He informed me that he had seen some of Mr. Freeman’s correspondence with Captain Guion, which, in his opinion, came fully within the meaning of the late sedition law; and recommended, in the most serious manner, that he should be immediately suspended from his employment on the line. This, added to the opinion of Governor Sargent, (who spent a number of days at our camp,) Colonel Bruin, and many other respectable gentlemen, determined me in taking that measure. The surveying at present is done by Mr. Gillespie, the chain-carrying by Mr. Ellicott and Mr. Walker. General Wilkinson has removed Mr. McClary from the command of my escort; his conduct was far less exceptionable than that of Mr. Freeman, and when he did err it was generally the effect of bad advice.

Mr. Freeman left our camp on the 30th September, at the very time we were changing our system of carrying on the work, and in which the compass only is used, without giving me any notice of his departure, that arrangements might be made to meet the want of a surveyor. He was absent until the evening of the 17th ultimo, and on the morning of the 18th he was furnished with a note of suspension. He has constantly conducted himself in that same independent way.

The reference, No. 9, which was in cipher, in my communication of the 14th of November last, contained an account of an extraordinary plan; but that plan, in my opinion, is now given over, and the knowledge obtained of the country, its strength, and the disposition of the inhabitants, will be turned to the advantage of the United States by some of the principal characters concerned. It is the best they can now do. That the plan is given over may be collected from No. 1, which for particular reasons is in cipher, and ought to be secret. It cannot be considered as a literal translation, which you will see by the introduction, but it conveys accurately the ideas contained in the letter from which it is extracted.

The plan of Baron de Carondelet, mentioned in my communication of 27th of June last year, was correct as there stated; the particulars I have since obtained, and will be detailed to you by a gentleman, in the course of a few months, who was in the secret of the whole business. That you may not be at a loss when that gentleman calls upon you, he will have a letter of introduction from me, with an official communication, and a number of questions in the same cipher with reference to No. 1. His answers to those questions will convince you that my information has constantly been correct.